Dr. Richard C. Lukas,
a respected authority on modern European history, has written six books
on various aspects of Polish history.

by
Dr. Richard C. LukasThe Forgotten Holocaust,
published by Hippocrene Books, is considered a classic in the literature on
World War II.

Did
the Children Cry: Hitler's War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945by
Dr. Richard C. Lukas Describes
the plight of Jewish and Polish children during the war.This book won the Janusz Korczak Literary Prize, awarded by the
Anti-Defamation League for the best book published on the subject of children. which
deals with the plight of Jewish and Polish children during the war, won the Janusz
Korczak Literary Prize, awarded by the Anti-Defamation League for the best book
published on the subject of children.

When
it comes to the history of World War II, the American media has developed a black
hole concerning the genocidal policies of the Nazis against Christians. Everyone
should know by now that not all of Nazism’s victims were Jews. Millions—we do
not know and probably will never know the precise number—were Christians, mostly
civilians selected for destruction for ethnic, religious, social, cultural, or
political reasons. When Christians of that era are mentioned in the media, their
victimization is either ignored, trivialized or distorted. Too often false generalizations
about pandemic Christian collaboration with the Nazis against the Jews are made
to deflect attention away from the huge numbers of Christian victims during the
most destructive war in history.

No
group’s victimization has been more distorted in American film, television and
journalism than the Polish nation, which lost 3 million of its largely Catholic
citizenry, most of whom died at the hands of the Nazis. Among the last few refugees
of bigotry in the United States are the anti-Catholicism and anti-Polonism. Since
most Poles are Catholic, they have been especially vulnerable.

The
most disturbing Polonophobic slander is the obscene claim, repeated with nauseating
regularity, that Catholic Poles were complicit in the Holocaust of the Jews. A
recent example of this kind of journalism appeared in the pages of IN THESE
TIMES, whose masthead claims it is dedicated to “Independent News and Views”
as well as “Liberty and Justice for All.” One of the publication’s contributing
writers gratuitously slapped the Poles for what he described as their “Homegrown
massacre of Jews.” When challenged by an informed reader, the writer asserted
either in appalling ignorance or with unabashed ethnic hatred, “The fact of mass
Polish participation in the fascist slaughter of Jews, Roma and gays.”

During
World War II, only minorities of Christians approved or collaborated with the
Germans in their grisly campaign against the Jews. There never was mass Polish
participation of Poles in the slaughter of anyone. Bob Lamming perceptively observed,
“Holocaust denial makes frequent straw-man appearances in the U.S. media. I have
never seen this thesis seriously advanced in any reputable venue. Yet, across
the spectrum, from left to right, the doctrine of Polish complicity in the Holocaust—a
similarly insolent deception—cannot be recognized for what it is.”

No
group of people, gentile or Jew, has a monopoly on goodness or evil. Most Christians,
especially those in Eastern Europe, where German occupation policies were the
most severe, were preoccupied with their own grim predicament and wanted only
to survive the war. Many, if not most non-Jew, felt compassion for Jews and were,
in historian Philip Friedman’s words, “passive humanitarians.” Still others, acting
on their compassion, actively aided them.

In
Poland, Christians took risks unknown elsewhere in Europe. It was the only German-occupied
country where aiding a Jew automatically resulted in the death penalty. Yet, according
to author Ed Lucaire, “The Yad Vashem Museum in Israel honors the Righteous Among
the Nations and Poland ranks first among the 34 nations with 5,373 men and women,
almost one-third of the total of all Christians honored for their compassion,
courage and morality and who risked their lives to save the lives of Jews.” To
be sure, the number of Jews aided or saved by Christians far exceeds those honored
by Yad Vashem, whose criteria for inclusion among the honorees have made it possible
to recognize only a fraction of courageous Christians.

The
insidious mythology of Christians, especially Catholic, complicity in the Holocaust
is so persuasive that even many Catholics, including the clergy, subscribe to
it. Little wonder there is a conspicuous paucity of commemorations in Catholic
and Protestant churches of Hitler’s other victims during Holocaust Remembrance
Week.

Unlike
the Jews, most of whom perished in gas chambers, Christians died in slave labor
and concentration camps, were shot to death in individual or group executions,
and died of hunger and ill treatment. Years ago, a Polish Catholic who had the
unique experience of surviving two internments in Auschwitz, told me, “Death is
death. I don’t understand why Christian victims of the war are ignored by their
own churches.” In order to find our moral and historical compass in this matter,
we Americans should ask ourselves how we would feel if foreign invaders tried
to impose a racial reconstruction of our society and after the war was over, witness
commemorations of some but not all of our citizens.

Pope
John Paul II, who witnessed the terror and genocidal actions of the Nazis in his
native Poland, knows better than most of us what happened to Jews and Christians
in his ravaged country. His efforts to promote Christian-Jewish reconciliation
never included admonitions to ignore the Catholic and other Christians who perished
at the hands of the Nazis.

The
Pope knows what all of us should be aware of—namely, failure to broaden our understanding
of World War II imposes a narrow, distorted interpretation of historical events. This
view of history can only be partial and incomplete. One of its terrible consequences
is that the Christian victims of yesterday have become the victimizers in today’s
journalistic pop history. Ignoring or falsifying the victimization of Catholics
and other Christians diminishes the magnitude of German totalitarianism. Is this
the historical message we want to convey?

This
is not the place to discuss why history is treated like a loose-leaf notebook
by the American media, which removes the pages with which it disagrees and substitutes
new ones that suits its own prejudices and political agendas. Christians of all
denominations should realize that the tragedy of non-Jews during World War II
must not be high jacked and manipulated to serve objectives that have nothing
to do with history.

One
effective corrective to what passes for history in the American media would be
for Christians to hold regular observances in their churches, similar to those
that are routinely held for Jewish victims of the Holocaust, for the millions
of Christians who died in the genocidal bloodbath of World War II.

What
better way to further Pope John Paul II’s plea fro Christian-Jewish reconciliation
than for Jew and Christian to remember and honor the victims of both tragedies?